Article: Such a Pity that the USA has Not Yet Achieved Lincoln's Noble Ambition

VHeadline.com guest commentarist Kenneth T. Tellis writes: Recently a man I knew, who had come from Poland and who was very fanatically anti-communist, took his family for a holiday in Cuba. Before leaving, I spoke to him and told him not to judge Cuba from the propaganda that was put out by the US government and its agencies ... and that he was in for a pleasant surprise. He spent two weeks in Cuba with his family of five, his wife, himself, a daughter and two sons. When he came back. gone were his anti-communist feelings. I had already told him that this was not the USSR or its satellites and that Cuba was in fact a Socialist state, with a lot of everyday people who worked hard and shared the common goods that were available.

Yes, there were no Fast Foods outlets that destroyed the health of millions, because the government cared about the health of the people. The people governed Cuba, not the Corporations ... so there was no bribery to push Foods that were creating problems of ill health and whatever food was available was healthful and did not create obese people. The hotel that he and his family stayed in was not loaded with luxury but commonplace items that while not being cheap were of an acceptable standard. The Cubans that worked in these establishment shared tips and there were no complaints about someone getting more or less ... it was a feeling of a society that was not wrapped up in the constant haggling that one finds in a Capitalist society in which the dog-eat-dog attitude prevails.

There were no obese people who had grown up on hot dogs, hamburgers and doughnuts ... all of which are constantly promoted on US radio and in TV commercials without mentioning the fact that they could destroy the health of people.

Of course, since the US Government gets tax money from the Fast Food outlets they don't worry about what's happening to the ordinary citizen, as long as they cater to the Corporations ... which are in league with the politicians? Of course there's no mention that bribery and corruption are at the very roots of the Capitalist system, which deliberately uses the misnomer: DEMOCRACY.

Say what one will, the true form of democracy is the rule of the people and not the elite as in the USA...

Perhaps, US President Barack Obama needs to understand that the US can not export its version of democracy to Cuba, because the USA's is not democracy ... but perhaps Cuba can export democracy to the United States of America. Instead of complaining about Cuba not being "democratic" the United States of America needs to take lessons in democracy from Cuba. But ... if we look even to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we'll see true democracy gaining ground because, being a socialist society, it is governed by the PEOPLE and not by the ELITE as per the United States.

The words in President Abraham Lincoln's famous 'Gettysburg Address' projects "Government of the People, By the People, for the People."

Such a pity that the United States of America itself has not yet achieved Lincoln's noble ambition.

Kenneth T. Tellis
kenneth.tellis@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/tellis